A resource’s qualified capacity and proposed commercial operation date determine how many megawatts the resource can add to its capacity supply obligation (CSO) in CSO bilateral periods and reconfiguration auctions. Resources that have ahieved (FCM) commercial operation—and those that haven’t, subject to meeting certain conditions—can participate in annual reconfiguration auctions (ARAs ). However, only resources that are expected to achieve FCM commercial operation prior to the end of an obligation month may acquire or increase CSOs in monthly CSO bilateral periods and monthly reconfiguration auctions.
The methodology for determining a resource’s qualified capacity value varies by resource type and FCM event. See also Capacity Network Resource Capability (CNRC) Outcomes or Capacity Network Import Capability (CNIC) Outcomes, in the case of import capacity resources associated with an external elective transmission upgrade.
The rules for determining a resource’s summer and winter commercial qualified capacity (QC) are the same for the first and second annual reconfiguration auctions, but differ for the third ARA.
Resource Type |
Commercial Qualified Capacity |
|
|
First and Second Annual Reconfiguration Auctions (ARA 1 and ARA 2) |
Third Annual Reconfiguration Auction (ARA 3) |
|
|
Generating capacity resources (other than intermittent power resources) |
The higher of:
|
Summer or winter SCC in effect after the most recently completed summer or winter season |
|
Generating capacity resources (intermittent power resources) |
Most recently determined summer or winter QC |
The lesser of:
|
|
Import capacity resources (backed by an external control area) |
Summer or winter QC as determined for the FCA for that CCP |
The lesser of:
|
|
Import capacity resources (backed by one or more external resources) |
The greater of:
|
The lesser of:
|
|
Demand capacity resources (distributed generation & load management) |
Most recent summer or winter QC as calculated for that CCP |
The lesser of:
|
| Demand capacity resources (energy efficiency) |
Sum of all energy efficiency (EE) measures installed as of existing qualification deadline, excluding EE measures that will expire as of the start of the given CCP’s summer or winter season |
Sum of all EE measures installed as of existing qualification deadline, excluding EE measures that will expire as of the start of the given CCP’s summer or winter season |
Any capacity that hasn’t yet achieved commercial operation will be added to a resource’s commercial qualified capacity as long as all the following are true:
For more information, please refer to Market Rule 1, Section III.13.4.2, Participation in Reconfiguration Auctions.
Monthly bilateral periods (MBPs) and reconfiguration auctions (MRAs) begin after the third annual reconfiguration auction (ARA 3). For these, a resource’s qualified capacity:
Before opening the bid and offer window for a bilateral period or reconfiguration auction, the ISO publishes the QC values for all resources in the Forward Capacity Tracking System (FCTS) .
